


Cat Out of Water

by EvilMuffins



Category: Free!
Genre: Cats, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5119175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Good luck getting the cat hair out of the pool."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cat Out of Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DreadlordTally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreadlordTally/gifts).



> Your prompts were all adorable! Hope you enjoy this :) Happy Halloween!

“Aha! If it isn’t Gou-kun!” the soon-to-be former captain greeted as he opened the door to Samezuka’s pool building.

Out of habit, Gou began to open her mouth to correct him, but suddenly found herself hesitating. She had come here so often now, between visiting her brother and arranging practices between the two teams, without realising she had begun to think of it as a sort of nickname, even if she sort of still did prefer being called ‘Kou’.

Nicknames were a good thing. It meant that the captain was friendly with her, which thus extended to being friendly with the rest of her team. Besides, at least some of her classmates were calling her ‘Kou’, and Captain Mikoshiba was definitely someone she saw as being different from her classmates, something like a business partner…a very tall, very muscular business partner.

Before she could shake herself out of a sudden daydream involving the captain in a smart business suit (maybe it was a size or two too small…and maybe, just maaaaybe, one could still make out the outline of his biceps through the sleeves…), a dark, fluffy blur collided with Gou’s leg before continuing on it’s seemingly lightspeed journey through the door Mikoshiba still held open.

_“What the hell!?”_

_“I think it’s a cat!”_

_“It’s drowning, man! Someone get it!”_

The sudden cacophony from inside the building was muffled somewhat by Gou’s ear being pressed into the warm fabric of Mikoshiba’s team jacket after being caught from her stumble.

Before Gou could fully disentangle herself, a cough issued from behind the captain.

Mikoshiba moved out of the doorway, freeing Gou and revealing her brother, holding a pool net containing a soggy mound of black fluff.

“Cleaning the pool filter like a good captain, are we, Matsuoka?” the current captain grinned.

Rin ignored him. “Gou, would you mind taking care of this for me? I’m kind of busy in there…” he looked down guiltily at the bundle in the net.

“Sure thing, Captain Nii-san!” Gou kidded, carefully scooping the kitten up. She was very proud of her big brother for making it as the new team captain. She understood how busy he must be.

“I’ll grab a towel!” Mikoshiba announced, jogging back inside after Rin, and returning with a towel nearly as fluffy as the kitten.

Gou watched as Mikoshiba sat on a bench and began toweling off the little creature. For being so boisterous, he was incredibly gentle with the kitten, taking extra care to lightly pat around its tiny face.

As she looked from the cat to the boy, Gou was struck by how similar both of their eyes were, golden and full of life.

She sat down beside them. The kitten mewed happily at the chance to be meeting so many new people today.

“I wonder where he came from…” the captain mused.

“Hmm… Well, I can call the shelters tomorrow and see if anyone is looking for him. Otherwise, Makoto might be able to take him in.”

“Sounds like a plan! By the way, you came to see your brother, right?” Despite how he acted, Mikoshiba wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Gou didn’t really come just to see him, as wonderful as that would be.

The girl nodded. “I came to ask if he wanted to come shopping for new protein powder with me. The boys don’t seem to enjoy the last one I picked, so I thought I’d get my brother’s opinion on what they might like. I’m thinking either guava or maybe that bacon flavor they import from the US. Guys love bacon, right?”

“Ah, I’m sorry I’m keeping him so busy then,” he sounded truly apologetic. “I thought I’d let him get some practice in at being captain before I’m not around anymore, but it seems like he really doesn’t even need my help. He’s really taken to it! He’ll probably be done in about an hour or so. Do you mind waiting?”

“No, that’s alright. It would take longer to leave and come back.”

Gou opened her bag and pulled out some stat charts she had been working on, jotting new notes here and there to pass time, occasionally reaching out to pat the kitten on Mikoshiba’s lap as the boy chattered happily about his team.

After a time, Gou began to rub at her eyes. The early summer sun reflecting off the sheets of paper was beginning to make her vision blur around the edges. She yawned, leaning her head back against the bricks of the building, resting her eyes.

The pencil slipped from her grasp onto the ground. Had she fallen asleep? Mikoshiba suddenly felt a pang of guilt for asking her to wait for so long. He should have relieved Rin of his duties for the rest of the day. Gou was such an amazing person, who was he to deny someone precious time with her?

He wriggled out of his jacket, bunching it into a ball (so as to make sure the part damp from the wet kitten wound up on the inside), and carefully sliding it behind her head.

In doing so, he had disturbed the little animal. It stretched, wandering over to Gou’s lap in the hopes that that particular human might wiggle less often.

Finding her lap satisfactory, the kitten went straight to sleep with a little yawn, though not nearly as cute as Gou’s, Mikoshiba noted. It’s sleeping expression mirrored the girl’s perfectly- eye lids fluttering, lips slightly parted (though, to be fair, Gou didn’t sleep with her tongue partly out).

The moment was quickly put to an end, however, by the pattering footsteps of a little girl running up the pavement toward them.

“Kuro!” she panted, teary-eyed.

Gou blinked a few times, as did little Kuro. “Is he your’s?” she asked, head still a little muzzy from her nap.

The little girl nodded fervently.

Gou handed over the cat, but only after she and Mikoshiba both gave it a last farewell fur ruffle. It had mostly dried during Gou's nap, now warm and snuggly.

The girl thanked them and ran off back toward her home.

“Welp, I better get back in there and see how your brother’s fairing.”

“Alright. Good luck getting the cat hair out of the pool,” Gou smiled, bending to retrieve her pencil.

The boy barked a laugh as he went back inside.

As she leaned back against the wall once more, Gou noticed the soft lump that had slipped behind her back. Pulling it out, she discovered that it was Mikoshiba’s jacket, warm, smelling of chlorine and body spray. She stuffed it behind her head once ore, closing her eyes with a sigh, visions of muscles and cats dancing in her head.

_The end_


End file.
